


A Properly Romantic Courtship

by Harukami



Category: DRAMAtical Murder
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-29
Updated: 2014-03-29
Packaged: 2018-01-17 10:20:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1383901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Harukami/pseuds/Harukami
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clear, very very belatedly, decides he should be courting Aoba. Aoba endures.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Properly Romantic Courtship

Never mind the fact that they'd been sleeping together for weeks now -- longer if you counted the time Clear was broken, since they started before and resumed after, but Aoba had been skipping that in his mind; it didn't count, and _shouldn't_ count toward their time 'together' -- Clear had decided, in his own words, to "court him properly".

"Clear," Aoba said, strangely touched but equally embarrassed. "I don't need that kind of thing?"

"It's important to be serious about things when dating a boy," Clear said.

Aoba, who had suspected for some time that Clear had got most of his ideas of what went into a romance through reading trashy teen magazines he literally dug out of the trash during the time he lived with his grandfather, sighed, smiling despite himself. "I mean," he said, "we're already in the living together stage. And you did your best already. With the cooking and the naked apron."

"OH! Yes, should I try that again?"

"Never," Aoba said.

Still, while Clear seemed to grudgingly accept that Aoba wasn't into naked apron (or, at least, he heard Clear muttering to himself about needing to find out what Aoba's _equivalent_ to naked apron was), he didn't seem dissuaded from the idea of courting him.

Which is why Aoba wasn't as surprised as he could be when he woke up at 3 am one night to find the other side of his bed empty. He did have the moment of panic despite the full awareness that Clear was probably just Up To Something -- he couldn't help it; the empty bed was itself a nightmare image to him -- but the sound of Clear serenading him from below the veranda put his mind at rest right away.

"Clear," he called out through the veranda door, "come back to bed."

"One moment! An early morning serenade is the height of romance, Aoba-san!"

"Yes, but you're going to wake--"

"WHAT DO YOU IDIOTS THINK YOU'RE DOING?"

"--Granny."

So that was charming. Clear considered it a failure, and seemed unwilling or unable to cheer up when Aoba pointed out that there was no possible way for it to _be_ a failure, what with the fact that they were already committed to a lifetime together. 

Clear stepped up his game by having flowers delivered to the house, which was admittedly pretty romantic, but kind of embarrassing when Tae stomped into his room with the bouquet and dumped it on top of both of them.

"You could have just brought them home and saved the delivery fee," she muttered, as she headed back out. "Honestly!"

"But you have to have them delivered!" Clear called after her. "It's the rule!"

"I see," Ren murmured, from underneath a dozen red roses. "Clear is following the Rules of Love."

"What's that."

"I believe it's a handbook."

"Find it and burn it," Aoba said, not unkindly, and completely ignoring the fact that Ren lacked opposable thumbs.

The next few weeks were littered with incidents like that. Chocolates unfortunately left under his pillow instead of on top of it, a misunderstanding that left a melted mess and a morning of laundry and apologies. Candlelit dinner with so many candles it was definitely a fire hazard, plus, of course, it was dinner for the whole family instead of a romantic dinner for two. The flower delivery mark two, where this time Clear somehow plucked the entire bouquet rather than giving it over, and covered their bed with rose petals. Two weeks later, Aoba was still picking them out of his hair and, worse, his ass crack.

Finally, when Clear attempted to wheel in a broken piano so he could fix it up and play it for Aoba -- where he'd found it was one thing, and whether he even knew how to play it was another -- Aoba decided that, cute as it was, he had to put his foot down.

"Clear," he said, as Clear attempted to find an angle that would allow him to bring the piano through the doorway, "No more romance."

"Eh-- But--! Aoba-san!"

Aoba came over, putting his hands on Clear's and looking him straight in the eye as he said, in the gentlest, most coaxing tone he could muster without dipping all the way into mind control, "You're perfect as you are. Our relationship is perfect as it is. You courted me by being yourself, and I don't want or need anything other than you in my life, and to be such a perfect, happy family with you and me and Ren and Granny. Okay? It's fine. You don't need to do anything big and showy for me to know how much I love you."

Clear's eyes seemed to sparkle. "Aoba-san!" he said, and his tone of delight made Aoba think that maybe he'd really got through to him. "I -- Oh, I'm so happy, Aoba-san, I just -- what should I do with this piano, though?"

"Maybe take that back where it came from..." Aoba said, eying the wreckage dubiously. "It's probably fixable, but we don't really have room..."

"And the bondage swing? Do I have to return that? I haven't even had a chance to show you it yet--"

"Bonda--" Aoba began to protest, cheeks going red, then checked himself. Clear had been trying awfully hard, after all, and if a little suspension bondage put Clear's mind to rest, who was he to protest? It felt a little like an excuse, but whatever, if it was justified, he didn't have to think any further about why he wanted to make excuses in the first place.

"That can stay," Aoba said.


End file.
